A CLEVER COMBINATION: FIRST FORGE, THEN BEND.

EMMINGEN-LIPTINGEN (jw) | You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to achieve substantial improvements. By intelligently combining established manufacturing methods in a new way, LEIBER's development engineers unlocked significant potential for reducing component weight, material consumption, and energy usage, when optimizing a motorcycle Telelever control arm. With this manufacturing process called "FORGE & BEND", the LEIBER Group has now entered the ALUMINIUM Innovation Award 2026 – and you can have your say!

The voting platform for the ALUMINIUM Innovation Award 2026 has been open since 7 September. The renowned International Aluminium Journal is showcasing all the innovations submitted on its website. Vote for LEIBER’s “FORGE & BEND” here.

The LEIBER Group has nominated its innovative manufacturing process in the ‘Sustainable & Low-Carbon Manufacturing’ category. This category focuses on innovations ‘that measurably reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing and processing’. A Telelever component manufactured using the “FORGE & BEND” process offers considerable potential in this regard: compared with a conventional component, the topology-optimised control arm produced by LEIBER using the “FORGE & BEND” process is 600 grams lighter. Material usage is reduced by 20 per cent, whilst the high tensile strength of 380 MPa is maintained. This is achieved through a combination of forging and bending. The component is first flat-forged and only then bent into its final, load-optimised three-dimensional shape. In the process, the grain orientation of the aluminium follows the bend. Strength is maintained.

Further advantages for subsequent machining

Thanks to near-net-shape forging, which produces a shape close to the final contour, the amount of milling required on the motorbike component is significantly reduced. This means lower material consumption, shorter cycle times and less tool wear.  The material used also offers advantages. LEIBER uses the low-carbon LEIBER proprietary alloy AluMotive®, based on the standard aluminium alloy EN AW-6082.

Find out more about “FORGE & BEND” on our landing page and vote for LEIBER as a candidate for the ALUMINIUM Innovation Award 2026 by 23 September.

A simple principle with a big impact: using the ‘FORGE & BEND’ manufacturing process, the lightweight construction specialists at LEIBER have succeeded in producing a key motorbike component that is significantly lighter, uses less material and is more environmentally friendly. That’s more than enough reason to enter it into the race for the ALUMINIUM Innovation Award 2026 – cast your vote!